1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to management of maintenance activities. More specifically, but not by way of limitation, the present invention relates to systems and methods for lubrication program management.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Facilities such as manufacturing facilities, factories, and the like often house and make use of numerous pieces of equipment. Such equipment may include manufacturing and/or processing equipment, for example, pumps, fans, conveyors, turbines, mixers, compressors, hydraulics, presses, molding machines, stamping and/or cutting equipment, CNC machines, and the like. Additionally, such equipment may include packaging machines, printing machines, and the like.
Each piece of equipment generally requires at least one, and often several, individual maintenance tasks to be performed periodically and/or intermittently. Each piece of equipment may also have several individual machine components upon or with which one or more maintenance tasks are required. For example, a single piece of equipment may include: several grease fittings that each needs to be greased periodically, oil that needs to be changed periodically, one or more oil filters that need to be changed periodically, one or more mechanical joints that require periodic and/or intermittent inspection, one or more air filters that require periodic inspection and intermittent replacement, as well as components that may require periodic and/or intermittent cleaning, painting, and other maintenance tasks.
In a facility with multiple machines, where some or all of such machines require numerous maintenance tasks, scheduling and management of maintenance is highly difficult and time consuming. Numerous maintenance technicians may be employed to ensure that these maintenance tasks are completed in a timely fashion to prevent equipment failures and ensure reliable and efficient functioning of equipment. The scheduling and coordination of various maintenance tasks becomes even more complex when tasks must be assigned among various technicians whom often have varying degrees of skill and availability. As is understood by those skilled in the art, such scheduling can be extremely difficult without the assistance of computerized software for assisting managers and/or engineers in the scheduling and assignment of maintenance tasks. To this end, computerized systems exist that assist managers and engineers in the scheduling of maintenance tasks in a facility. Such computer systems and methods may be referred to in the art as ‘Computerized Maintenance Management Systems’ or ‘CMMS.’ A variety of computerized tools have attempted to reduce the burden of scheduling and management aspects of maintenance tasks. However, simplifications and generalizations in these automated scheduling tools, such as the introduction of routes, exacerbate the work completion burden by the inefficiencies they introduce.
A “route” is generally known in the art as a static assignment that is intended to be reused multiple times, which may effectively amortizes the time required to define the route over multiple instances. In generating such routes, prior art systems and methods generally prioritize factors that allow scheduling ease ahead of factors that improve execution efficiency. Factors such as periodicity of tasks may take on preeminent importance, even though such preeminence of one task may directly reduce the efficiency of workers. For example, once per month, weekly activities correspond with monthly activities, yet in a conventional route-based system often workers must walk to the same equipment with the same tools twice. Further, to keep the route intact for its next execution it must normally be completed as a unit, even though factors such as operational limitations and the like can prevent all work from being completed at the same time. In a route based system, however, the result is that some fraction of the work will be done either early or late on the next iteration, with negative repercussions either way.
One alternative seeks to alleviate the limitations imposed in routes by scheduling each task individually in assignments for one-time use. One example of such an alternative system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,856,931 (issued to McCasland and hereinafter referred to as ‘McCasland’), which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. McCasland describes a “process and system for identifying specific items or assets which require time-based or on-demand attention, a method of planning and scheduling activities on the located items or assets, analysis on actions performed relative to the items or assets and adherence to a time-based schedule for scheduled activities.” However, the McCasland reference has a number of other shortcomings that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art with reference to the figures, description, and claims herein.